The Tame Apple Press has done its best to spin the story as “consumers have decided against trying to get the hard-to-find item” rather than Apple’s main source of income is dying.

The logic of this argument is that Apple fanboys would buy iPhone 13s if they could find them but a global chip crunch, initially due to high demand for smartphones and personal gadgets during the coronavirus pandemic, has affected the auto industry and disrupted production.

In October, Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook warned that the impact of supply constraints, which cost the company $6 billion in sales in the fiscal fourth quarter, will be worse during the holiday quarter and that chip shortage was affecting most of the company's products.

Apple cut production of iPhone 13 by as many as 10 million units due to a global chip shortage, but now it has informed vendors that those orders may not ever materialise. Apple even cut back production of iPad tablets to allocate more components to the iPhone 13 which suggests that there were phones available it was just that those who wanted one had one.